Drug gang killings in Mexico nearly 5,400 in 2008

living close to Jaurez has been , lets say "ENLIGHTENING".
Fortunately Fort Bliss , Is right down the street!!!
This body count has been all over the place !the local news and press always say it is much lower ! This official number is a little lower than what I have heard from some locals ! Either way what a mess !!!

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The number of people killed in Mexico by drug violence has more than doubled this year to nearly 5,400 people and 2009 could be even worse, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said on Monday.

The official death toll of 5,376 for the year so far is higher than media estimates and more than twice the 2,477 people killed in the whole of 2007. Most victims were rival drug gang members or police.

Medina Mora said the surge in killings by drug gangs, who use gruesome tactics like beheading their victims and dumping bodies in public, would likely worsen next year as cartels fight each other and security forces over smuggling turf.

"We have not reached the peak of the curve yet," he told reporters at a briefing. "I still see an increase."

....

President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out war on drug gangs when he took power at the end of 2006, vowing to end decades of cartel violence with an army-led campaign, but two years on, cartel violence has spiraled out of control.

Medina Mora said drug gang killings so far this year were up 117 percent from the same period in 2007.

Most of the bloodshed takes place in the northern states of Baja California, Sinaloa and Chihuahua, where powerful cartels headed by Mexico's most-wanted man Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman and rival Vicente Carrillo Fuentes fight over smuggling routes into the United States.